What future do you prefer?
Dear MST friends,
The world's food supply is under threat. If one of the ten corporations
that control the sale of seeds in this planet decides to suspend the
marketing of rice, for example, this item would be missing from the
dining tables of Brazilians. We are talking about...
Court frees Stang murder suspect
BBC News, June 29 2006
**MORE NEWS BELOW**
Brazil's Supreme Court has freed a man awaiting trial on charges of orchestrating the murder of a Catholic nun and activist, Dorothy Stang.
In a three-to-two vote, the Court decided keeping Regivaldo Pereira Galvao in custody violated his...
Dear Friends of the MST,
We would like to share a portion of text below, written by the Benedictine monk Marcelo Barros for the Fifth Conference of Agroecology—Developing a Popular and Sovereign Project for Agriculture. The encounter occurred in Cascavel, Paraná on June 7-10, where it brought together more than 5,000 agriculturists...
Over 20 years ago, Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST) was born. Through continued grassroots organizing, political education and mass nonviolent action, over 350,000 landless families have won title to land – roughly one million people! These families now farm over 20 million acres of agricultural lands, ensuring their own food security...
On July the 31st of 2004, over 400 MST families occupied the Santa Filomena Estate in Brazil’s southern state of Paraná. During the occupation, MST activist Elias de Meura, 20 years of age, was shot and killed by gunmen hired to keep the landless from occupying the estate.
The families have continued to refuse to leave the estate,...
On June 13th of 2006, Via Campesina - Brazil presented the report, 'O Latifundio dos Eucaliptos' to the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Sul (RS). Christine Campos, of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) of RS, stressed the importance of this event, identifying the report as a tool to educate civil society as to the negative impacts of...
Since the end of last year, the men and women rural workers from the Pátria Livre encampment in the municipality of Correia Pinto (SC), have been denouncing the human rights violations committed by the owners of the São Roque Farm. The decree of expropriation of the area is being processed in the Supreme Court and the landless workers are...
Two conferences, two views of agrarian reform
Author: FMST's Charlotte Casey
Two international conferences are taking place this week in Porto Alegre, both sponsored by the United Nations Agency on Food and Agriculture (FAO) and both on the subject of agrarian reform. The similarities end there.
Approximately 70 nations...
Civil Society Confronts State Officials at the ICARRD Conference
Author: FMST's Isabella Kenfield
Today was the last day of the parallel forum, and tomorrow the official ICARRD conference will end as well. In the last two days there appears to have been an opening up of dialogue between representatives of the two meetings. I was...
[06/08/06] Brazilian media attempts to criminalize MST and Via Campesina
Frei Sergio Gorgen, Deputy for the State of Rio Grande do Sul (PT-RS), criticized yesterday the Zero Hour newspaper of his state for its’ inappropriate linking of the Movement for the Liberation of the Landless (MLST) with Via Campesina. “While it is not our role...
